CATEGORIES

Essential Oils: A Balm For Emerging Farmers

Qobo Qobo Essential Oils, a non-profit organisation, has teamed up with South African Breweries to establish an essential oil crop venture in the impoverished Keiskammahoek area of the Eastern Cape. The project promises to become self-sustaining within a few years, writes Mike Burgess.

SA vintner tests the waters in Slovenia

Looking for an investment opportunity beyond the borders of South Africa? Slovenia might just be the answer. Pieter de Waal spoke to Glenneis Kriel about part-time wine production in this beautiful Central European country.

Planted pasture cuts drought risk for stud breeder

To cope with new challenges that arose during the recent drought, Johannes and Marijke Botha of Bodeel Angus Stud in the Free State decided to stop grain production and instead concentrate fully on producing beef cattle on planted pasture. Annelie Coleman reports.

Nampo Virtual 2020: what participants can expect

For the first time since 1967, Grain SA’s annual Nampo Harvest Day had to be cancelled this year due to the national lockdown restrictions imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Annelie Coleman reports.

BUSHMEAT HUNTING: a threat to wildlife

While popular in many African countries, bushmeat hunting and consumption is a major threat to many large species of wildlife in protected areas, write Julia van Velden et al. However, there is a solution to this problem, which requires partnership between government and communities.

New Developments In Post-Harvest Technology

Improvements in post-harvest technology have not only helped improve pack-out percentages for fresh produce growers, thus increasing profitability, but also resulted in less food waste. TOMRA, which specialises in post-harvest solutions, has debuted a number of new technologies this year

Why Africa's Food Supply Needs A Regional Approach

By disrupting international supply chains, the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered much debate about the need for deglobalization. This presents an ideal opportunity for Africa to explore the regionalization of agribusiness on the continent, writes Louis van Ravesteyn, head of Agri-Business Pan Africa within the Personal and Business Banking division at Standard Bank Group.

Canola: The Crop That Requires Perfect Planning

Melt van der Westhuizen of Moorreesburg holds the South African record for the highest canola yield ever produced. He spoke to Glenneis Kriel about his production methods.

Planning For Precision Irrigation

Precision irrigation requires a system designed with all your resources and production goals in mind, with the aim of ensuring optimal production.

Sweet potato and roasted peanut soup

Affordable and delicious, this soup will provide a hearty meal on a cold winter’s evening while delighting your taste buds. Anita Cilliers, who submitted the recipe, says the only extra it needs to be served with is a generous slice of your favourite bread.

TRACEABILITY: BEYOND THE TAG

Any farmer who thinks that a tag in the ear represents a traceability system for a beef herd is far off the mark; it simply links the animal to a production unit. A farm or feedlot should have good management practices across the entire production system, writes Dr. Danie Odendaal, a veterinary herd health consultant and director of Veterinarian Network

Stokvel concept offers hope to young farmers

Brought together through necessity by severe and ongoing drought, a group of farmers from Kuruman, Northern Cape, established an unusual stokvel in 2016 to assist each other with the sharing of resources. Thapelo Kgopodithate, the founder of the Makawana Farmers’ Stokvel initiative, spoke to Siyanda Sishuba about the group’s achievements.

Overberg farmers unite to conserve Renosterveld

Farmers in the Overberg wheat belt are working together to conserve one of the planet’s most threatened habitats. In return, they are getting much-needed veld-management support, writes Dr.Odette Curtis-Scott, director of the Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust.

No one locks this agripreneur down!

Lengau Mothiane has just signed on another 10 employees to handle the workload at his farmer support services business, Horizon Southern Group. Sabrina Dean spoke to him about his journey.

Aardvarks Suffer In Extended Drought

It is not only livestock that are threatened during multi-year droughts; wildlife, too, can succumb to the stress. Dr Nora Weyer and other researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand have found that aardvarks’ feeding in the daytime during extended drought may be a sign that they are starving.

Record-Breaking, High-Altitude Ngunis

On 9 May 2020, the Biggs family, who farms in the Eastern Cape, sold a Nguni herd sire for a world-record price of R310 000. Clive Biggs spoke to Mike Burgess about the family’s well-adapted Nandi Nguni stud in the foothills of the Drakensberg near Cedarville.

Healthy Food Is Becoming Increasingly Unaffordable

The latest edition of the ‘State of food security and nutrition in the world’ has found that the number of people affected by hunger globally has been slowly on the rise since 2014. The report, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, estimates that almost 690 million people went hungry in 2019, an increase of almost 10% over the past five years. The high costs and low affordability of healthy and nutritious diets also continue to contribute to the malnutrition of billions of people.

Wine Farmers To Fight Ban In Court

Government’s recent decision to reinstate the ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages is expected to bring an already struggling wine industry to its knees, with some farmers feeling that not enough has been done by representative bodies to protect them. Jeandré van der Walt reports.

How A Community Is Keeping Hope Alive

The drought of the past eight years has transformed the Sutherland district into an austere and desolated landscape, almost lunar-like in its bleakness. Despite the devastation, the community here has decided to do all it can to survive, and help others survive, until the rain comes again. Annelie Coleman reports.

The Importance Of Maintaining Reproductive Health In A Herd

Fourth-generation farmer Gerhard Grobler says he has been able to achieve better results from his beef cattle herd after introducing crossbreeding. But, he adds, South Africa’s beef producers need to start managing animal health more proactively. Pieter Dempsey reports.

Adapt To The Covid-19 World, Or Die

COVID-19 has not only cost lives and livelihoods; it has changed consumer behaviour and buying patterns. To protect their businesses, farmers need to adapt to new market realities.

Small-Scale Success With Olives In Gauteng

Olive farming in South Africa tends to be concentrated in a few regions in the Western Cape and Northern Cape where conditions are ideal for this fruit. But in the early 2000s, Gauteng-based Hettie du Toit and her late husband, Frans, frustrated with the ongoing theft of their vegetables, decided to give olives a go on their plot. Pieter Dempsey reports

Achieving Employment-Intensive Land Reform In SA

A new study suggests that significant increases in the employment intensity of agriculture can be achieved if land, situated specifically in four local municipalities, is redistributed to smallscale farmers. According to Ben Cousins, emeritus professor at the University of the Western Cape’s Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, by focusing on specific types of farming in these four areas, almost 24 000 job could be created.

Plans to revive SA's groundnut industry

Due to drought and a lack of new cultivars, the country’s groundnut industry is in a precarious position. North West producer Lourens de Kock and Adri Botha, chairperson of the South African Groundnut Forum, spoke to Annelie Coleman about what needs to be done to turn the tide.

The many benefits of good tyre traction

Hennie Hattingh is responsible for original equipment sales at the Johannesburg branch of a major Southern African tyre and tube distributor. Stehan Cloete spoke to him about the effect of tyre pressure and tractor ballasting on fuel efficiency and productivity.

Sweet thorn encroachment in the Eastern Cape

A number of woody encroacher species are expanding both their distribution and density in the Eastern Cape. Sweet thorn (Vachellia karroo), the most common of these, detrimentally affects the quality of grazing in the province, writes independent agricultural consultant Dr Louis du Pisani.

Beefmasters produce heavy weaners despite drought

Coenraad Viljoen, who ran the Josephus Beefmaster Stud on Sunny Slopes near East London, said that strict selection criteria had paid off in the long run.

Insect Farm's Plans For Sustainable Protein

Insect farming, which is increasingly regarded as a sustainable alternative source of protein, has emerged as one of the fastest-growing agricultural industries. Dr Michael Woods, co-founder and CEO of Susento, spoke to Jeandré van der Walt about the advantages of insect farming and his goal of producing a high-quality protein sports drink from fly larvae.

The Master Architect Of The Highveld

Dutch architect Sytze Wierda left a unique and timeless legacy across the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek before the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902).

Rapid Spread Of Invasive Species

According to researchers at the Centre for Invasion Biology at Stellenbosch University (SU), a total of 1422 alien species are currently naturalised or invasive in South Africa. Much more action is needed to counter the increasing threats posed by invasive alien species in the country, warns Wiida Fourie-Basson, science writer in the SU Faculty of Sciences.